When one of the people who were part of our Israel tour group learned that I was writing a book inspired by the trip, he offered the following suggestion:

Wow, At first glance your devotional looks very impressive. But help me out, here — why no picture of you and Lisa at the Dead Sea? That would have made a great devotional: For example, like the way Dead Sea minerals bring new life to our skin, so salvation in Christ brings new life to our souls. Or you could point out that as the unique waters of the Dead Sea support the human body with amazing buoyancy, so too does God’s Holy Spirit support us in times of trial and testing.

He was kidding, of course, because he knows there is no way I would include a photo of my wife and I in our bathing suits, slathered up to our necks in mud from the shore of the Dead Sea. This carefully cropped photo is as far as my exhibitionism extends (and as much as my wife would allow!)

Still, his jest illustrates a very real challenge I’ve faced in writing this book: namely, deciding which locations to include and which passages of Scripture to focus on. When I set out to write Feet to Follow, Eyes to See, I wondered if I would have enough material to complete 31 daily meditations. Once I mapped out a tentative outline, however, it became clear I would have the opposite problem. I have now finished writing the devotions which focus on Old Testament passages, and there are a number of major sites with fascinating stories I simply couldn’t include. Who knows? Perhaps I’ll have enough material remaining to do a second 31-day devotional.

Even if I do, I can guarantee there won’t be any Dead Sea mud photos in that book, either!